Repeatedly throughout Hollywood history, filmmakers have passion projects and movie stars have vanity efforts. Angelina Jolie Pitt, after two pretty solid directorial efforts (Unbroken, In the Land of Blood and Honey), adds screenwriter to her resume and becomes a writer-director (and star) of By the Sea. Along for the ride is her husband, Brad Pitt, as the two play a married couple settling into a seaside 1970s south of France locale where he is trying to write his next great book.
Is By the Sea a passion project or even a vanity project? We’re not sure what to call it, except a film that misses the mark and is beautiful to look at, albeit just a bit boring.
Pitt and Jolie Pitt begin the story by driving in a to-die-for convertible on a dusty road towards the seaside motel where they will spend the next couple of months. Jolie Pitt is Vanessa, an ex-dancer who seems not-so-content to travel in style, living off her author husband Roland’s past successes, numbing herself with prescription medication and alcohol while he spends days (heck, weeks) on end sitting at the hotel bar drinking himself into oblivion.
This is clearly not a happy couple. But, the screenwriter Jolie Pitt doesn’t dish out her information in a manner that keeps the viewer glued to what is going on. Instead it feels monotonous and pedantic watching Roland drink his day away while she sits like a glamorous lump in their hotel room gazing over the glorious scenery of the south of France.
By the time the couple finally gets into what it is that is tearing them apart, it’s too late. There is a newlywed couple that has taken the room next door, and Roland and Vanessa become obsessed with their goings-on, which almost seems to springboard some sort of happiness between the two like we have never seen. The unfortunate thing is the fact that the audience is so awash in lack of interest that the secondary couple becomes more compelling than our protagonists. If they reconcile or find some sort of happiness becomes irrelevant. These are simply two people about whom the viewer will not care if there is a happily ever after.
Jolie Pitt, the actress, seems to drift into elements of her disheveled character from Girl, Interrupted. Vanessa is not quite as crazy, but as Jolie Pitt plays her, she certainly lands on the unhinged side of the scale. Perhaps she was too busy with the directing aspect of the picture (she has never directed herself) to focus on her performance. Or, it could be that screenwriter Jolie Pitt never gave actress Jolie Pitt a fully developed character to work with and that is why her turn feels forced without any emotional nuances that would fill the role with layers of color.
Pitt, meanwhile, somehow manages to produce some of his best work in years. We adored him in Moneyball, and can’t wait to see him in The Big Short. But in By the Sea, the actor has to dig deep and play Roland on the surface at times and then roll out the big emotional gun moments later. It is a fantastic performance.
One thing is also clear: Pitt and Jolie Pitt have a connection that transcends their real-life love affair. Most couples struggle to find on-screen chemistry. As we saw in Mr. and Mrs. Smith, these two are electric. In By the Sea, unfortunately, the sparks are few and far between. But, they do exist and they are in the scenes where the two are delving deeply into what is tearing them apart. We just wish there was more of that instead of a pair of beautiful people posing as glamorous souls not enjoying their time By the Sea.
Grade: C-